Disparities and heterogeneities in the measures adopted by Brazilian municipalities when dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract The article aimed to investigate how Brazilian municipalities developed measures to face the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, a survey was conducted with data from the National Confederation of Municipalities collected in the second semester of 2020. The results showed that measures were initially adopted, such as the implementation of sanitary barriers, social isolation and the rise of the mask use; however, most municipalities have made these actions more flexible over time. In addition, it was observed that municipal entities developed actions to respond to the pandemic in a heterogeneous and uncoordinated way. It is concluded that this phenomenon is due to the fact that the federal government and the states of the federation developed precarious mechanisms to encourage inter-federative cooperation and little stimulated the coordination of activities in order to guarantee uniformity of the actions developed in the Brazilian territory.